External Address

Profile

My first degree was in pure mathematics and statistics at the University of Queensland. I began studying cognitive psychology and cognitive neuropsychology as an undergraduate of Macquarie University in 1988. I stayed on at Macquarie University to complete my Honours degree and then my PhD thesis entitled "Theory of mind, mental simulation and schizophrenia". Theory of mind refers to the capacity to impute others' mental states and my PhD work examined whether an impairment of the normal capacity to appreciate other minds might contribute to the symptoms that are characteristic of schizophrenia. After completing my PhD in 2000, I joined MACCS. Later that year, I commenced an ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2000-2004). I was then awarded an ARC Australian Research Fellowship (2004-2009) to investigate delusions in a number of clinical conditions and later an ARC Future Fellowship to investigate poor social functioning in schizophrenia (2012-2016).

My main research interests lie within the field of cognitive neuropsychiatry. Cognitive neuropsychiatry aims to apply the logic of cognitive neuropsychology in order to further our understanding of psychiatric symptoms. The psychiatric symptoms that are of primary interest to me are delusions, hallucinations, lack of insight and the poor social functioning that characterises schizophrenia. A number of theories have been proposed to explain delusions. One of these is the idea that some delusions, especially persecutory delusions in people with schizophrenia, reflect impairment of the normal capacity to appreciate other people's mental perspectives. I continue to investigate this "theory of mind" model of delusions and other cognitive factors implicated in delusions in order to inform the ongoing development of the ‘two-factor’ theory of delusions that I and my colleagues have been developing for a number of years. My other research interests include: visual cognition, in particular, the detection and orienting of attention in the direction of another person's gaze; various psychopathologies including autism and psychopathy; personality traits in the healthy population, in particular, schizotypy; and the broader disciplines of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuropsychology.

Recent External Appointments

Member, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Assigners Academy. (2012 continuing)

Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW (2013 - 2014) "The development of an internet-based social cognitive remediation for people with schizophrenia (eSoCog)." Marsh, P.J., Langdon, R., & Coltheart, M. ($50,000)

Marsh, P.J., Langdon, R., Harris, A., & Coltheart, M. (2013). The case for social-cognitive remediation to improve outcomes in schizophrenia: A life well lived is more than remission from psychosis. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (ANZJP), 47(6), 512-515. doi:10.1177/0004867413479066

Langdon, R., Connaughton, E., & Polito, V. (2011). Social skills training or social cognitive remediation? Insights from an experimental study of social knowledge and social cognition in schizophrenia [Abstract]. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45, A21.

Marsh, P.J., Langdon, R., McGuire, J., Attewell, J., Sureav, A., Harris, A., & Coltheart, M. (2011). The design and development of a novel mental state reasoning (MSRT) program for schizophrenia [Abstract]. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 45, A21.

Langdon, R. (2011, December). Insight in Early Psychosis. Invited paper presented at the Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research Annual Conference, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Langdon, R. (2011, October). Theory of mind and schizophrenia. Invited presentation given at the University of Queensland Psychology Colloquium, Brisbane, Australia.

Langdon, R. (2011, September). The 2-factor approach to delusions and the distinction between immediate and reflective delusions. Invited symposium conducted at the 17th Conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP), San Sebastian, Spain.

Cox, R.E., Barnier, A.J., Attewell, J., & Langdon, R. (2011, June). Biases in memory and information processing during a hypnotic erotomania delusion. Paper presented at the 9th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, New York, USA.

Langdon, R. (2011, June). Social skills training or social cognitive remediation for schizophrenia? Invited symposium conducted at the Symposium on Cognitive Remediation for Schizophrenia at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Annual Conference, Darwin, Australia.

Langdon, R. (2011, June). Theory of mind in schizophrenia. Invited presentation given at the Brain and Mind Research Institute Colloquium, University of Sydney, Sydney.

Langdon, R. (2011, June). Pathologies of Tracking Other People’s Identity: Variants of Misidentification Delusion. Paper presented at the Agent Tracking and Its Disorders: A Multidisciplinary Conference on the Identification and Tracking of Human Individuals, Macquarie University, Sydney.

Langdon, R. (2009, April). Accentuate the positive: Towards a new framework for understanding the etiology and mechanisms of core positive symptoms. Invited paper presented at the International Congress of Schizophrenia Research, San Diego, California, USA.

Langdon, R. (2008, June). The role of conscious experience differentiates between received and reflective delusions. Invited symposium conducted at the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC), Taipei, Taiwan.

Langdon, R. (2006, January). Attributional biases in early psychosis: an investigation of the relationships with paranoia and depression. Presentation given at the Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Sydney.

Langdon, R. (2006, January). What do delusions tell us about the nature of the mind? Presentation given at the Neurophilosophy Workshop, Annual Conference of the International Neuropsychiatry Association, .

Langdon, R. (2006, January). Theory of mind: The case of schizophrenia. Presentation given at the Academic Meeting, School of Psychiatry, UNSW, Sydney.

Langdon, R. (2006, January). From experience to belief: The cognitive neuropsychological understanding of delusions. Presentation given at the Psychiatry Research Seminar, Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital, Brisbane.

Langdon, R., McLaren, J., & Corner, T. (2003, December). Reflexive and controlled orienting of attention triggered by another person’s gaze in schizophrenia. Paper presented at the Reflexive and controlled orienting of attention triggered by another person’s gaze in schizophrenia, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Langdon, R. (2003, September). Limits of Mindreading in Schizophrenia Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Workshop on “Other Minds” hosted by the Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences, University of Oregon, USA.

Langdon, R. (2003, May). Theory of mind and psychopathology: autism versus schizophrenia. Paper presented at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Conference, Hobart, Australia.

Langdon, R., & Still, M. (2002, December). The relationship between paranoia, depression and attributional biases in early psychosis. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Psychiatric Research, .

Langdon, R. (2001, July). Poor mind-reading and delusions: The role of allocentric frames of reference. Paper presented at the Mindreading and Behaviour: Individual Differences in Theory of Mind and Implications for Social Functioning, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.